


Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe

by Bofur1



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Adoption, Backstory, Brotherly Bonding, Child Abandonment, Fluff and Mush, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 19:38:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1953621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Bofur1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dori, Nori, and Ori are brothers through and through, even though one of them came into the family by a rather odd means...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe

Jalane woke with a smile when she heard tiny, badly-muffled giggles at the foot of her bed.

“I wonder who that could be,” she murmured in mock curiosity, making the rascals laugh harder. “Ah, but I’m so comfortable here in bed, I don’t think I want to get up and check for bandits. Maybe they’ll leave me alone.”

“No!” the young gigglers denied her gleefully in unison and Jalane pretended to be startled when her sons leapt onto the bed and flopped on top of her.

“Well, now, look what we have here!” she gasped, looking first into the large sapphire-blue eyes of her elder son and then the topaz-brown eyes of her younger. “Dori, Nori, where did you come from?!”

“We were hiding,” Nori explained, his mischievous grin revealing his missing teeth.

“You didn’t know we were there, right?” Dori demanded anxiously, flipping his long bowl-cut bangs out of his eyes. “Were we being really secret?”

“Well, I’m your mother, lads,” Jalane cautioned. “And I know everything.” At their exchange of disappointed looks, she added with a smile, “But your secret is safe with me.”

Whooping, they both gave her sloppy kisses and then flew off down the hall in a game of chase. Jalane slipped out of bed after them, shaking her head in wonder. Those boys were quite a handful, but she loved them more than anything.

Only a bit later, as Jalane was making breakfast and her boys were playing in the living room, a loud knock came at the front door.

“I’ll get it, Ama!” Dori and Nori called in unison, both shoving each other to get there first. In the end Dori won out, hauling open the door with that strength of his that Jalane sometimes found a little disturbing.

“Amaaaa...” Nori’s voice spiraled down, down, down with that one word.

Dori’s voice had apparently reached the bottom of whatever pit of disappointed boredom he and Nori had found. “It’s Uncle Haylan.”

Jalane took a deep breath and put her ladle in the pot of stew, smoothing down her hair and clothing. Before she could go out to greet her brother, however, Haylan barged in toward her, beet-red in the face. For a moment Jalane feared he would go off on a rant about something or other (as usual), but instead he looked...afraid.

“Haylan? What’s wrong?” Jalane asked worriedly.

“Sister, I—I don’t know what to do!” Haylan gasped, hoisting up a basket for her to see. “You have to help me hide this!”

“Hide it?” Jalane echoed in bewilderment. “Whatever for?”

“Hide and seek?” Nori asked hopefully, peering around the kitchen doorframe.

“Hush, boy! Go play with your brother,” Haylan snapped. Nori stuck his tongue out at him and remained stubbornly where he was. Ignoring the disobedience, Haylan turned his attention back to Jalane. “This is far more serious than any game, Jalane. Please—” His eyes went wide in horror at a sudden noise from whatever was in the covered basket.

Jalane tentatively lifted the hem of the blanket and bit back a gasp. Watery brown eyes peered back at her from a small, pudgy face.

“A baby!”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Haylan moaned, shoving the basket with the baby into her arms so he could pace. “But now that it has, I have to get rid of it!”

Jalane stared at him in horror. “What are you saying, Haylan?!”

“I need to—you need to—” Haylan didn’t seem to know what he was saying. Fortunately for him, Dori interrupted.

“What about a baby?” he asked curiously. Jalane turned at the sound of his voice and Dori’s face lit up when he saw the contents of the basket. “Ooohh, let me see, let me see!” he begged, running forward with Nori hot on his heels.

Reluctantly Jalane knelt, pulling the blanket fully back so her sons could see the child.

“Aww, he’s so cute!” Dori squealed, tickling the little feet that hung over the wicker’s edge.

“Look at his little button nose!” Nori cooed, stroking it with one finger.

Jalane watched in dread as they lathered praise on the baby, pointing out different traits and gently poking and prodding. As they both set to tickling different places, Dori and Nori’s eyes went wide and their jaws dropped when the little thing laughed, squirming beneath their touch. The joyful sound seemed to awe them until Nori looked up at Jalane with shining eyes and asked the question she had wanted to avoid:

“Can we keep him?”

Dori looked up too, clasping his hands in prayer-like supplication. “Can he be our little brother, Ama, please?”

“That would _certainly_ get him out of my hands,” Haylan muttered, but Jalane hissed at him to be quiet and focused on her sons.

“Dori, Nori...He’s very little.”

“You always tell us we are too!” Dori reminded her.

Jalane paused, thinking that perhaps her eldest was a bit too intelligent for his own good. “True, but you two are growing quickly. I don’t have the things I need to take care of a baby.”

“We can help you!” Nori piped up. “I’ve got a good singing voice, so you won’t have to worry about him bein’ crazy in the night and Dori can do the feedin’—”

“No, I can’t,” Dori scoffed. “Only amas can do that.”

“Oh, so you’ll have to do that part, Ama,” Nori decided. “But we can do everythin’ else! We’ll rock him and sing to him and play with him and wash him, even gettin’ behind his ears like you always want—”

“And I can learn how to knit and stuff so I can make him clothes!” Dori added excitedly.

“Yes, I’m sure you could,” Jalane stammered. “But Dori, Nori...he’s—he’s not mine.” It was different, she was sure. How could she love a baby who wasn’t her son like a son? For neither the first nor last time Jalane’s heart ached for Fori. Her husband would have known how to handle this. He would’ve had some witty comment or, better yet, he wouldn’t have let Haylan into their house in the first place.

The boys paused. Dori stared off into some middle-distance for a long moment and then snapped back to attention. “I’m Dori because I was born in the day,” he said slowly, “and he’s Nori because he was born in the night. Uncle Haylan, when was this one born?”

“I wasn’t there,” Haylan announced. “I don’t know.”

Dori nodded thoughtfully. “So we’ll shorten it and make him Ori.” He nudged Nori in the ribs and nodded again meaningfully.

Nori released his gap-toothed grin once more. “We named him, Ama. He may not be yours, but he’s _ours_.”

Jalane met their smug expressions with disbelief. After fifteen long seconds she shook her head and sighed. “Ori he is, then. Don’t worry, Haylan,” she added sarcastically, glaring up at her embarrassed brother. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Dori and Nori glanced at each other with smirks. “But it may not be safe with us,” Dori said casually, glancing at his nails.

Haylan stiffened. “Boys...” he pleaded. “Promise—”

“We promise nothin’,” Nori answered cheerfully, picking up the basket with Dori’s help and dragging it out of the room. Jalane rose to her feet, planting her hands on her hips.

“You’d better hope they don’t know what blackmail is,” was all she said before trailing after her trio of sons.


End file.
